Portland
Blog: This Week in Portland September 14 - September 21 2013

It's been a long while since I have started my morning by opening up all the doors and windows to better enjoy a soft, quiet and misty Portland. I'm a rain hater come late February after I've been slowly rained out for months straight -- my brain and every other inch of my body sogged-n-bogged out by the non-stop pitter-patter. Imagine what would happen to a sugar cookie if you left it on the sidewalk for just one day in the winter. That's how I feel come late February when I can only just barely handle a few more days...weeks...months...of rain.

But this, the start of our fall, is always a welcome time. I love the trips to Sauvie Island for pumpkins and fall harvest. Digging out boots and sweaters and hats for evening strolls. I love the slight chill and the need for more blankets on autumn camping trips to the beach and Lost Lake. And we all know that crabbing season is off the hook during any month that ends in "er".

Oh yeah, the fall brings good things! But, I am still not quite ready -- even after the surprise near three digit weather week we all just endured. So today, no matter what, I am jumping on my bike and I am heading to my favorite parks and pubs and will make sure to take some long detours through Portland neighborhoods I like a lot just so I can drink them in one last time in this summer season.

Call me impaired in any fashion you like, but I'm looking forward to November 3rd.

What happens on November 3rd? Why, at 2am in the dark dark morning, the silly Daylight Saving Time endeth, and yeth, I'm quite happy about it.

What, you aren't? That's weird. You're weird.

Me, I think it's a pity it lasts so damned long, pardon mah Frainch, because one word: Hallowe'en. No, it's spelled exactly right, the word “Hallowe'en” is a contraction of this festive day's original name All Hallows Eve. I know that because I take my Hallowe'en seriously even though it looks like I hiccup'd when I typed it.

Would it have hurt to end Daylight Saving Time a month earlier? You're asking kids (and more than a few grown-ups) to don their finest Hallowe'en finery (Their very finest finery, I tell you!) to stalk or totter or careen or (in the case of a few adults I know) stumble drunkenly* down the sidewalk in broad daylight. Well, okay, not BROAD daylight; even now the daylight at 8pm as I write this (hurriedly, because I have a deadline and also there's some awesome shows on my DVR waiting for me) is somewhat lean in aspect. But it's not Halloween-scary dark, now is it? And children who have caring, politically-correct and socially-responsible parents will by now have been herded to bed as they bawl their sweet little heads off, wailing about the injustices foisted upon them by big old people (big and old!) while outside the world actually starts to get fully NIGHT. For an hour or maybe two, the poor tykes got escorted up and down the streets while the sun was still going down (“twilight”, which used to be an awesome word before it was ruined by sparkly vampire teen romance), and now that precious night comes on, they get hauled indoors?

This is unconscionable, and mean to kids. Children know that the bestest monsters come out only at night. Actually I just thought of a cool sort-of costume that's also a protest: a kid carries a bag of ashes with him on DST trick-or-treat, and when asked about it, he or she says “This is my brother. He's a vampire but he burned up because SEE IT'S STILL LIGHT OUT!” It makes a point, see? The best protests engage the masses on their doorsteps.

Aw, just let me confess. All of the forgoing diatribe (though heartfelt and with lots of paretheses), is just my thinly-disguised way of saying that I love Portland summers but I'm ready to see this one go. It's time the Holly King bid his adversary brother the Oak King adieu and kicked his woody ass out the door. I want to welcome my misty, eerie, dewy-green-and-red-and-yellow-and-orange season of the witch back to my beloved city. I want to smell wood smoke and family meals cooking and see the warm glow of lights through the windows of my neighborhood, as I walk or ride through the early evening. Through the dark.

September 7, 2013 at 10am to January 5, 2014 at 5pm – Portland Art MuseumRobert Adams is an unflinching witness to grand promises sometimes fulfilled and sometimes laid to waste. A faithful visitor to the Northwest since the early 1960s, he moved permanently from Colorado…Organized by Mariah Pushnik | Type: exhibition

September 17, 2013 from 5pm to 7pm – portland international racewayThis summer, Incight and Oregon Disability Sports are teaming up to present the second annual Summer Handcycling Series at Portland International Raceway. Every Tuesday, beginning July 9th, handcycli…Organized by incight | Type: community